Wyklęcie Papuszy według Angeliki Kuźniak, czyli biograficzny reportaż jako esej

The following article deals with the literary biographical reportage Papusza and the author’s impression of the Gypsy poetess. Kuźniak explores Papusza’s life beyond the myth rooted in popular culture. And in her search for the real Papusza she finds an absolutely tragic figure. Naturally, the author applies a highly critical feminist gaze that detects the “sins” for which the poetess will have to “pay”, and in general these are related to the fact that she is a woman. But there is no discourse here: the author makes the facts speak for themselves. The plot is constructed in such a way that the moral commentary is redundant. Kuźniak’s work is a dry, minimalist book, built upon bare factsand scraps of life, with no apparent literary work: its stylisation is expressed through linguistic coarseness, imitating Papusza’s austere way of life (a life where the poetry is sought after), her primitive writing and even her naive poetry. As we shall see, three great condemnations loom over Papusza’s life: femininity, gypsyness and otherness. But Kuźniak goes beyond the specific biographical account, which in turn serves as a micro-historical vector through which we gain access to a vision of the history of Polish Gypsies in the twentieth century. Thanks to that Papusza thus becomes a critical essay dealing with the issues of discrimination, gender and otherness.